About archiving

Why organizations archive data

Organizations archive data for many reasons, central of which is disaster recovery. Archiving data enables an organization to create a complete, self-consistent replica of a collection of data suitable for bringing back online at some future date. Where backup is concerned with users accidentally destroying files or individual hardware components failing, disaster recovery addresses recovery from events that might disable an entire building or geographical area.

Organizations archive data for purposes other than disaster recovery. Space constraints often require that older data be archived. Reasons organizations archive and restore data are as diverse as their businesses. Some organizations restore data for use in historical analysis, some restore data for use in litigation.

Importance of archiving a complete backup set

Archived data might be used to re-create an Exchange data store from the ground up. For this reason, it's important to understand all the components of a SnapManager backup set, and what those components are named, so that you know that your archives contain all the data required to restore your Exchange data.

SnapManager backup sets

A SnapManager backup set includes the following components:

Exchange database snapshots
Exchange transaction log snapshots
SnapInfo directory snapshot

SnapManager snapshot naming conventions

The naming conventions for SnapManager snapshots depend on whether your SnapManager host system is running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003.

Snapshot naming conventions for Windows 2000 Server

If your SnapManager host system is running Windows 2000 Server, your snapshot names will be as follows:

Exchange database snapshots
- For the standard backup management group:
  exchsnap__exchangeservername_date_time
- For all other backup management groups:
  exchsnap__exchangeservername_date_time__backupmgmtgroup
SnapInfo directory and transaction log snapshots
- For the standard backup management group:
  eloginfo__exchangeservername_date_time
- For all other backup management groups:
  eloginfo__exchangeservername_date_time__backupmgmtgroup
  
  Note
  If you did not select the Use Unique Name option when you created the SnapManager backup, the most recent snapshot name contains recent instead of date_time. This is for backward compatibility with previous versions of SnapManager, which did not include the Run Command After Operation feature.

Snapshot naming conventions for Windows Server 2003

If your SnapManager host system is running Windows Server 2003, your snapshot names will be as follows:

Exchange database and transaction log snapshots
- For the standard backup management group:
  exchsnap__exchangeservername_date_time
- For all other backup management groups:
  exchsnap__exchangeservername_date_time__backupmgmtgroup
SnapInfo directory snapshot
- For the standard backup management group:
  eloginfo__exchangeservername_date_time
- For all other backup management groups:
  eloginfo__exchangeservername_date_time__backupmgmtgroup
  
  Note
  If you did not select the Use Unique Name option when you created the SnapManager backup, the most recent snapshot name contains recent instead of date_time. This is for backward compatibility with previous versions of SnapManager, which did not include the Run Command After Operation feature.

Guidelines for archiving

Follow these guidelines when you create archives:

Only archive verified backups.
If you are not sure whether a backup is verified, you can use the SnapManager Restore tab to check; a backup with a green check mark is verified.
Create an archive of the most recent backup.
- If you didn't use the unique name option when the backup was created, the most recent snapshot in the filer's LUN drive volume that stores the Exchange databases is always named /exchsnap_servername_recent or /exchsnap_servername_recent_backupmgmtgroup. Servername is the name of the Exchange server from which the snapshot was taken, and backupmgmtgroup is the name of the backup management group.
- If you used the unique name option, look for the snapshot with the most recent date and time.
LUNs cannot be archived using the CIFS or NFS protocols. Use the filer's dump command or an NDMP backup application to archive LUNs.

Considerations for scheduling SnapManager Backup for archiving

Scheduling SnapManager backups for archiving must take into consideration many factors, including the following:

Archive method used
Service Level Agreements for disaster recovery
Number of SnapManager backups performed per day
Exchange client activity schedules
Backup verification time

Archiving individual storage groups or databases

Archiving individual storage groups or databases from SnapManager backups is not recommended. This task requires a full understanding of the snapshot naming conventions used by SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange and should not be attempted without knowing which snapshots contain the appropriate storage groups and transaction logs for a given point in time. Archiving complete Exchange server backups (all storage groups) is recommended.